Social Action for Women

SAW celebrated the Anti Child Trafficking Day

December 12, 2008

Thousand of students from various migrant schools in Mae Sot, Tak province of Thailand marched at Anti Child Trafficking Day which was on December 12, 2008. SAW also organized the event at one of its safe houses in the evening in which they shared information and lobbied the communities regarding to the trafficking of children and women.

The human rights activists say that child trafficking cases increased year by year. According to the UN children Fund report last years, around 120,0000 children are being trafficked every year. In South East Asia, around 225,000 children and women are being trafficked.

Child trafficking mostly happened in the Mae Khao regions where the border areas of Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and China include. Burma signed the UN convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Convention) in March 20, 2004 and enacted Anti-trafficking in Persons law in 2005. The law is to prevent and suppress the human trafficking yet many the women and children are still victims of trafficking in Burma, say the human rights organization.

Social Action for Women (SAW) was founded in June 25, 2000 to assist displaced women from Burma who are in crisis situations after having fled to Mae Sod, Thailand. SAW is based in Mae Sod and was established to support women facing difficulties through the provision of shelter, health education, rights awareness, counseling, and vocational training for unskilled women.